i don't want to lose faith in sports. thats my issue. if it were about thrown games. or fixed games, i would be devastated.

As would I...I suppose it all comes down to one's ability to forgive...and what one is willing to forgive. My best friend swore off baseball during the 1994 strike and never returned. I don't think the Cubs (oddly, his favorite team!) cared when he didn't come back. Baseball as a whole has seen a growth in attendance since the strike, so nobody noticed when James quit going to games with me...except me. .

I am a girl so pardon me for reading this man post, However, I was not really a big sports fan in the past. (Probably due to the fact my older brothers were football players in school and the coaches treated me like one of them. No Thanks.)

Anyway, I tried to care when I first got married. I figured this pastime took up a good chunk of the weekend with my guy so I should get into it. (Plus this was 1991 when the bulls were hot and I was moving into the area.) Coming from Iowa there are no real teams, all of my siblings like different teams in all sports. The nephews mostly like chicago teams thanks to my hubby being a cool uncle).

I am lucky enough to have a guy that really only cares aboout his teams. He doesn't have to watch sports 24/7. So I start getting into basketball=Bulls world champs easy. Cubs= grama watched them on tbs so I at least had a background of that. Hockey (I love to watch them skate, but the rest is not to exciting), Came from a racing family yet really not into nascar. Occasionally watch part of the indy, but it is not the same anymore. But FOOTBALL, (NOT soccer, that's my bro-in-laws deal) But NFL, About 10 years ago, We are watching Thanksgiving game. Some player with thousands of $$$$$ around his overly chained neck. And his gold teeth show how back home the family is still cooking burgers on stove in the kitchen. Grandma looks poor as ever,probably because this young punk spent all his first salary on bling. Then there are rapes and wife beaters and just scum of the earth.

Now I know no one but me cares that I have boycotted football. But I just cut off all brain cells when nfl was the topic.

So I was ?lucky? enough to meet one of these guys in person through a former client. So now I have to know what is going on since this team is doing so well. So just when I think I'll give this another try, I love to watch the cubs and listen to Ronnie share our pain, so ,maybe football is all right. I just re-engage my brain to care about a team that doesn't care whether I am watching or not, and here it comes dog killing scum. Whinny I need more money players getting their deal and then crashing cars into light poles and fleeing the scene? (OR am I not up to date, did he loan his car to a buddy, because my friends drive my lambies all of the time.)

I love to hear about when players do good things. am I the only one that liked chris zorich and his huge food collections for needy on thanksgiving? Or how about the young guy on the colts whose mom still takes a train and a few buses to work with underprivilged people?

OKAY, I said I was a girl, but really it is hard to watch and give a crap when those "superstar heros" are such jerks!

The one I met seems like a nice guy, but I am almost afraid of the next time he calls that I will say "geez man what is wrong with your buddies?" Probably be the last gig I do for him then huh?

Please don't be a stranger to threads like this! You brought plenty to the table...It's true that lots of these athletes are jerks. However, I would also point out that the media LOVES stories about people screwing up....it sells and they feel it increases viewership. In a perfect world, we would have more stories about guys like Warrick Dunn....he has a foundation that helps single moms get into their own homes. Or Tim Hudson, who feeds the hungry on Thanksgiving and contributes a lot of money to those type of charities. It's sad that the only time you hear about those types of stories are on shows like "Sunday Newsmagazine"...not that it's a bad show, but...put those stories on when more folks could see them. Instead, we get stories about Michael Vick (dear God, I am SO tired of that story!) or Lindsay Lohan or Bwittney. To quote Don Henley, "We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing, when all is said and done, we haven't told you a thing, We all know that crap is king, give us Dirty Laundry!". AIEEEE!!

when i was twenty, or so...i was racing around in my car (a true american crapmobile, big, fast, and got about 10 miles to the gallon ) anyway, i took a turn too quickly, the car spun out of control...and i clipped a parked car. i thought about taking off...but instead i got out of my car. wrote my name and phone # on a note. and i left it on his windshield. i promptly got a phone call later that day...and we negotiated a cash settlement.

which leads me oh so nicely into my point.

so...chicago bear linebacker lance briggs got in a nasty car accident on I-94 this week with his one week old lambourgini. he reportedly left skid marks as long as 50 yards on the expressway before he wrapped his car aroung a street sign. he was not found at the scene...but police, being as crafty as they are...figured out it was him because, well...he left his car at the scene.

he (allegedly) called a friend, and left the scene of the accident. he reported his car stolen. then, he thought better of it and re-called police and admitted he was indeed the driver. by now...enough time had gone by so if there was any alcohol and/or drugs in his system...it had washed away (or whatever booze and/or drugs do/go).

chi-town sports radio debated as to whether he was right in saving his butt by leaving the scene. some argued yes,others no. (incidently, he recieved only a $100 fine, misdemeanor, for leaving the scene of an accident). some even suggested he borrowed his car to a friend...(i can see letting a buddy take my buick for a spin, but don't even look at the lambourgini)

is this the way we want to teach our chilgren how to behave? how to take responsibility?

times are changing, folks. and its spinning out of control. i don't expect people to be perfect. god knows i am far from perfect myself. but there is a way to behave in society...and i'm afraid people of today's generation have not received the rulebook.

I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I got to get a belly full of wine.

Yea, verily, tis a tangled web indeed! Some days it seems as though we should hold a funeral for personal responsibility and class....

It falls under the 'tree falls in the forest' school of thought...if no one hears or sees it, did it make a sound? Does it matter? It certainly does to the tree! A personal anecdote, if you will: As a young lad, I had very bad aim with throwing things in the trash can...it never mattered to me how bad my aim was....I didn't have to pick it up. At least not until my Mom saw me miss...she grabbed my ear and took me over to see what I'd done. She told me how hard it was to keep the house clean and she was NOT gonna let me make her job harder. It was the first time she'd seen me miss...was it only wrong because I got caught? No, absolutely not. It was the last time I ever walked away from a miss. To this day, even on a jobsite, when I miss the trashcan, I go back and pick it up....I still feel my Mom grabbing my ear.

Every day, people break the law, myself included...to drive on the mean streets of Atlanta, speeding is the norm. It's probably like that in any major city in the US. I hear guys complain about paying speeding tickets, but they never want to hear about the laws they broke. I've had a few speeding tickets in my day, I didn't like them, but I knew I was in the wrong...so I didn't complain too much...just a cost of doing business. I've since slowed somewhat, but....

Anyway, Mr. Briggs has a wreck. He decides to admit to as little as possible until he's sobered up...then he comes clean. I understand his thinking....I'm frightened, I've totalled a new Lamborghini, I'm knee-walking wasted, I gotta get away from this scene. It's fight or flight....he chose flight....he chose a cowardly way out. I'd have wanted to run, too, but my Mom would have grabbed my ear and made me take the figurative whuppin' that was coming.

And Michael Vick....whoooo boy. I'm still not sure if he really understands that what he did was wrong...that dog-fighting is illegal and cruel and inhumane. I'm sure he does understand that his involvement in that unsavory enterprise will, and has, cost him millions of dollars and a career as the most popular player on his team. I was listening to his statement he gave right after turning in his guilty plea and I had to laugh, kinda. He professed a new-found faith in God...I turned to my working buddy and said, " Dangit! Mike can't even get that right....the new-found faith doesn't happen until you're getting OUT of jail!". It was kinda mean, but every statement he's released and every word he's said in this whole shebang has sounded as if he's trying to admit to as little as possible. Some guys at work don't see anything wrong with that, but it just makes me shake my head. Mike, if you fought dogs and killed them, admit it....don't hide behind legalese.

I am not a parent...but I think parents in general try to protect kids from unpleasantness. Unfortunately, when you screw up, it IS very unpleasant, but it is also very important to experience those unpleasant things that follow screwing up. It is, as my Mom would say, a 'teaching moment'!

Wait... your mom grabbed your ear and you turned out okay? you never turned her in for abuse?

So many parents (young ones anyway) were raised after the point in time that discipline meant a good old whooping. not a time out or a you can't do that honey. poo-poo talk

Now, I am a parent old enough to have been "disciplined " afew times. I have actually spanked each of my three in the past. Not more than twice for any of them, but I can't say I've never done it. Now that my oldest is a teenager with an attitude, I am more mean than ever. We are 3 days into a grounding of 3 weeks for irresponsibility. (missplacing a $50 mouthpiece for a musical instrument, for one of many things).

Now, we tell our kids we love them all of the time and we do truly love them. But I do expect a certain amount of respect and when I see that slipping I am not afraid to "grab them by the ear" and cut them off from texting or IMing(?) I kick them out of the house and away from electronics on an almost daily basis. On weekends they have to ride a bike or just run around the yard for an hour before they can even look at the tube (telly) or start a game.

Most parents don't want to grow up themselves, so how can they teach their own kids how to behave?

Especially when the parents are screaming at the guy on their team for screwing up. What are the kids learning from that. And when people like vic and harris get off easy, why should anyone behave?

I want to make loads of money and act like I'm 21 again too, I just know that ain't gonna happen. My parents gave a crap and they were tough old iowans. I don't want to turn into my dad, but I feel more like him all of the time.

It is more important to me that my kids grow up to be decent and hard working than for them to have fun and be popular. I am surely the minority, but that is the only way that I know how to try to keep them out of that kind of life.

I don't want to turn into my dad, but I feel more like him all of the time.

A bit of Nair will take care of that!

I can count on one hand the whuppins I got as a kid...didn't take many for Mom to realize that I could handle the pain...restriction, taking away my TV, THAT really got my attention. Kids really do crave boundries, I suppose. I never went through the 'rebellious' phase, until about 17 when I had to live with my Dad...he didn't know me well and asked Mom, "WTF?" She said, "Just put him on the phone.". I swear, she reached through the phone and grabbed my stinkin' ear! No more issues. Well, except for a hearing problem!